E3 2006: Silent Hill Origins Explored

Share.

We go deeper into the history of Silent Hill.

By Jeff Haynes

Konami introduced journalists to the latest chapter of their survival horror franchise, Silent Hill Origins, at their press conference today. The introduction started with a movie montage that encompassed the four titles on the consoles, showing the main characters of those titles as they went through their experience of Silent Hill. It quickly shifted to the main character of Origins, a truck driver named Travis O'Grady, as he drove down the road. Without explanation, the camera then shifted to a character walking down a long hallway in an old manor. Inexplicable images flashed quickly, such as odd fleshy orbs in a sink, rusty meat hooks hanging and other trademark scenes of the twisted side of the town of Silent Hill.

The trailer quickly descended into a chaotic frenzy of images, punctuated by music that slowed down and sped up at different intervals that gave a sense of instability to the entire trailer, but conveyed that something was definitely wrong with what you were watching. Odd figures cast their gnarled shadows on walls. Warped armless figures, which veterans of the Silent Hill series would recognize, twitched and shivered in pale pools of light. Large beasts without faces or heads hung on meat hooks. The immediate inference was that there were plenty of creatures coming out of the darkest corners of the town to grab at Travis, which was quickly confirmed by a shot of his deserted eighteen wheeler surrounded by shadowy figures that enveloped the truck. It was then swallowed by fog, which implied that the trucker had been completely absorbed by the town itself.

It didn't help that some of the next shots featured Travis staring into a mirror in a trashed restroom, only to find the mirror rip apart, as if something was trying to crawl out of it. The trailer then showed a number of the monsters that we'd seen before, such as the creature in a straightjacket stumbling his way through a dimly lit area and even the hint of the wheelchair beast. At least, it was the hint of the wheelchair creature, as only the chair could be seen dragged slowly into the shadow, making a loud scraping noise across the tile floor.

We were informed that as an origin story of the franchise, the game will not fully answer all of the questions for the series, but it will give the franchise a full historical context. For instance, it explains how Alessa inflected her rage upon the town of Silent Hill, as well as the role The Order plays in its tortured state. We were also told that old characters such as Dahlia, Dr. Kaufman and Alessa are just some of the characters that are making a return to the title.

There was also a lot of attention placed on newer camera placement that has been redone to better suit the PSP's smaller screen. This provides players with much better situational awareness, something that implied that you'd need to know what was happening at all times. There was also the announcement on a new "cineractive" system that would capture key gameplay moments and scenarios, providing Travis with completely new commands, attacks and dodges. These cineractive moments were likened to those high intensity moments in film, and promised a new way to get players involved in the suspense of the game. Silent Hill Origins is scheduled to be released this Winter, but we'll have more details from the show floor.